Getting the XML parsing error: <unknown>:2:0: xml declaration not at start of external entity

[ek6891]

I made the mistake of copying and pasting a post to the blog the feed is based on from an existing post. Since doing that I get the:

 XML parsing error: <unknown>:2:0: xml declaration not at start of external entity 

Error and the feed is unavailable. I have since deleted the offending blog post that probably created the error and pinged it through Feedburner, but the error is still there.

It's a Tumblr blog and I've checked the blog's entire code for:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

But I can't find it anywhere and certainly not in any of the existing posts.

The site affected is www.nerdsassemble.co.uk with the feed http://feeds.feedburner.com/nerdsassemble

Since I've deleted the post that probably caused this problem in the first place, is it likely that Feedburner is being slow in updating itself or am I going to have to do something more radical?

Due to this error I am also unable to use the Resync Now option.

Any advice or help would be most appreciated.

EK

[Matti Nescio]

http://www.nerdsassemble.co.uk/rss is equally broken and doesn't pass feedvalidator.

When viewing the feed code, one sees that the first line is a blank one 

and <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> is on the second line.

[ek6891]

I'm aware of that. I'm not entirely sure where I'm meant to go to try and fix this, it's the same error. After all, it's not like you can fix the actual XML file in FeedBurner as a regular user.

[Daniel J. Lewis]

What is your source feed? http://www.nerdsassemble.co.uk/rss and http://feeds.feedburner.com/nerdsassemble look exactly the same. The FeedBurner feed is missing all of the FeedBurner tags.

The problem seems to be originating on your Tumblr site, not FeedBurner.

Try a complete resync from the Troubleshootize tab. If that doesn't fix the FeedBurner feed, then you have to fix the Tumblr site.

[ek6891]

The feed is made directly from the site's content and was working up until earlier today.

But there's nothing to fix from the Tumblr site.

I deleted the post that may have caused the initial issue, as apparently copying and pasting can cause this problem and post was a copy and paste of an earlier post that was edited to see if it iTunes would see it. Other than that, nothing has changed on the Tumblr side of things.

The error means that I can't do the Resync, pressing the button leads to FeedBurner saying it can't do it because of the error. Pinging has done nothing to refresh it, since the post was deleted.

[Matti Nescio]

On Tuesday, 28 August 2012 17:25:24 UTC+3, ek6891 wrote:

I'm aware of that. I'm not entirely sure where I'm meant to go to try and fix this, it's the same error. After all, it's not like you can fix the actual XML file in FeedBurner as a regular user

The following are for wordpress and drupal, but might help in finding a fix:

http://feed2.w3.org/docs/error/WPBlankLine.html

http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2009/05/wordpress-feed-xml-parsing-errors/

http://drupal.org/node/175137

 

[ek6891]

Tumblr doesn't allow for the kind of editing that they're talking about in those links. The only code I have access to is a a sort of html section in the back end, under Customise HTML, which contains a mixture of XHTML, HTML and CSS.

I can't even find anything that says:  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>  with a space above it.

[Daniel J. Lewis]

This may be something Tumblr would have to fix for you. I'll post again if I get any ideas.

[ek6891]

Thanks. I've contacted Tumblr Support to see if they have any experience in dealing with this.

[ek6891]

It's sorted itself out now. It seemed to be a case of playing the waiting game or someone pushed a button or two somewhere...